January 25-28, 2001

January 25-28, 2001

We flew from Chicago's Midway airport to Orlando with one of Aimee’s childhood friends and her husband. We are heading for a three-day cruise with them on Carnival. From the airport we take a shuttle to Port Canaveral to board the ship. The weather is surprisingly cool. Maybe we should have chosen a cruise leaving Miami at this time of year. Hopefully it will be warmer in the Bahamas.

Our first day is spent at Carnival’s private island in the Bahamas. It is nice but very deserted. The second day is at Nassau on New Providence Island. Aimee is feeling sick so we leave her on the ship and take a taxi over to Paradise Island to see the Atlantis Hotel. On walking in the lobby we see a sign welcoming the Portillo’s Restaurant Company from Chicago. I guess there is big money in hot dogs.

The Atlantis is an extraordinary resort. We dodge security and walk the property. The grounds have the most amazing swimming pool-size fish tanks. One has a couple monstrous manta rays swimming in them! I have seen them only on TV! Another is loaded with sharks. That one has a water slide that starts at the top of a Mayan pyramid and runs thru a clear tube in the middle of the shark tank. Wow!

This would have been a good winter getaway except everybody (but me) kept getting sick and wanting to stay in the cabin. Finally on the last day everybody was feeling better so the four of us took a walk from the ship around Nassau. We walked through smallish Fort Charlotte, a British fortification built in 1788. Outside it, were lots of vendors selling jewelry.